


crash and fall

by jjebri



Category: Day6 (Band)
Genre: Bittersweet, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Jaehyungparkian, M/M, fallen angel!jae
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-07-11 10:30:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19926622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjebri/pseuds/jjebri
Summary: Jae falls because seeking human happiness is a sin, he knows.But he doesn't know that it's possible to fall even further.





	crash and fall

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fic i just want an angel!jae x human younghyun so bad

  
  
When Kang Younghyun finds a massive bundle of white feathers on his garden, he doesn't expect it to move, much less unveil a man covered in nothing but bruises and scratches and—well, _wings_.

But what Younghyun says in response is even more unexpected.

"I have an extra bed upstairs," Younghyun offers, squatting a few steps away from the stranger.

Inviting strangers isn't Younghyun's thing, not at all. In fact, even his friends don't get invited often. His home is pretty empty and quiet and he's liked it that way for a while now. However, this one isn't simply a stranger. This one is out in the cold, pale skin bruised and dirtied yet softly glowing beneath the night sky. This one is freezing with his fists curled and small eyes glassy with tears. This one is an _angel_ ; has feathers on his back but is unable to carry himself. Younghyun feels pity more than anything else.

The angel— now very much aware of pain, of the blood dripping out of his skin and of his broken wings— squints in confusion at the lack of reaction, moreso at the casual invite from the human. Are fallen angels a normal sight on Earth? Surely not, he tells himself. Or if so, he's sure angels don't conveniently crash right into a friendly human's yard.

The angel opens his mouth and tries his voice for the first time, throat faltering but words coming out naturally as if he was created for this world; meant to live in this same space and time. _You're quite strange_ , he wants to say, but a bed sounds inviting.

"Please." His voice almost sounds like a breath. And Younghyun doesn't hesitate to crouch closer, telling the other to climb on his back.

"Got a name?" Younghyun asks as soon as they reach the door to his room.

But the angel is too preoccupied to answer, eyes ogling around the whole interior of the house and arms adjusting over and over and over around the human's shoulders as he cranes his neck in wonder.

"You're pretty lively for someone who just fell," Younghyun chuckles, "Aren't you hurt?"

Younghyun sits him on a bed to see that he _was_ hurt: wounds and bruises gone without a trace; only patches of dirt left on the angel's skin.

* * *

Younghyun waits until he's done picking out stray grass from the angel's golden hair, until the shower is turned off; water quieted down to a muted splish-splash from the angel's tiny movements in the tub, before trying again:

"Do you have a name?"

This time, the angel looks at him.

"I no longer..." he starts, but it comes out like a hitch of breath. He picks up his voice again, this time louder, "no longer deserve it." His voice echoes within the small space, reminding Younghyun of a familiar sound. One that helps him sleep at night and calms his nerves when life gets stressful. He seems to get an idea then.

"How about Jae?"

"Jae," the angel repeats without any punctuation. Younghyun peers over to see his face but he can't read him either.

"Your voice sounds similar to my favourite singer," he explains. "His name's Jaehyung."

The silence thickens with the angel seated still in the bathtub, hands now rested on his knees after catching bubbles in the water. Only then Younghyun realizes that he's forgotten to introduce himself.

"You can call me Younghyun."

To this, the angel only hums in response.

"Or Brian," he adds after a small self-debate. "Whichever you want."

"Brian," the angel echoes.

* * *

When Brian wakes up, he's greeted with a finger between his eyebrows and a frown inches away from his face.

"This is not how you greet someone good morning, Jae." Brian laughs as he lightly nudges the angel's fingers with the back of his hand.

The angel, seemingly accepting of his new name Jae, slumps on the floor beside Brian's bed. His wings extend over the bedroom floor and Brian tries to ignore the loose feathers scattered about.

"You were scared," Jae simply says.

"But I'm awake now. Bad dreams can't hurt me here."

Brian sits up to face the angel on the floor, gazing down to meet his eyes. They're small but bright against the morning's soft rays, like tiny orbs of galaxies right in his room. He notices Jae staring at him, notices how Jae is blinking fast. Brian likes to think he does it to keep the stars in his eyes from falling.

"Plus I've got an angel on my side." Brian smiles a smile so bright and Jae finds it hard to look away- finds it harder to look away when Brian stares back.

Jae hasn't seen much on earth, but he confidently decides that Brian is the most beautiful human being he will ever lay his eyes upon. 

"A fallen angel." Jae breaks the eye contact. "We're far from helpful."

"But I like having you here. You might have other plans, though."

Jae pauses, thinks. He hasn't really planned out this far— didn't plan on falling in the first place. It happened in a blink; tripping over the thought of wanting to experience human life, over questions he must not ask, and falling headfirst into Earth, helpless in the grasp of fate.

"You can keep me company before I go." Jae finally answers. It sounds more like a plea than a suggestion and Brian doesn't plan to reject him right now. Not any time. He has been alone for too long, and Heaven may have just dropped what he needed right in front of his house, kind enough not to let him crash on his roof.

"Go where?"

"Somewhere far yet near and eternally damned. Perhaps."

"Can't you stay longer?"

"That's not for me to decide."

They leave it at that. Brian does what he's asked.

* * *

Brian takes him to the city; shows him around the streets and stores, lets him taste human food even though he does not feel hunger, lets him play games on his console that's been left untouched for almost a year.

"Let's have pizza today," Jae says one day as a good morning. Brian mentally notes to tell him again how it's properly done next time.

"We just had pizza last night."

"Okay. Fried chicken's good too."

Brian sighs in defeat and dials the chicken place later that afternoon. They spend the day talking about the world, about the space and planets and stars, about music and Brian's work, about history and people and animals that walked the Earth. They talk on the couch until the sun is down, reminding them to prepare for dinner. They spend the evening playing games until Jae finally wins a round and Brian gets to watch the brightest laughter spill out to his living room.

* * *

Brian teaches him guitar, sings him to sleep when he finds him awake at 3 am.

"We don't sleep," Jae insists. "We don't need it."

Brian tucks him to bed, pulling the fleece blanket up to the angel's chin. The night is freezing and he can feel it on the ice cold fingertips of the angel when Jae slowly traces the moles on his neck.

"Like stars," the angel whispers, an attempt to change the subject. "It's the Brian constellation."

"But you're on Earth right now," Brian gently takes the angel's hands in his warm ones, trying to ignore the cold that's ghosting his skin and the heat that's rising in his chest, "so I don't think it applies to you anymore."

And Jae falls asleep to Brian's soft voice and strumming of guitar.

Later when the sun is up, Jae finds himself clinging onto Brian's waist. Neither of them bring it up and from then on, Brian allows himself to forget that he has his own bed.

* * *

Brian brings him to night markets. They go window-shopping for clothes and shoes; splurge on food when they visit various shops later that night.

"It's cold," Jae whispers when it's getting late. He eyes Brian's bare hands and fights the urge to take them into his coat pockets.

"Let's go home," is Brian's answer.

 _Home_. It plucks a string in Jae's heart, making him disregard all the stop signs and red lights in his head. He takes Brian's hands in his own, unfazed by the few strangers giving them uneasy glances.

Brian brings him to new places every day that Jae has only seen from afar and Jae— Jae eagerly matches their steps, with the remains of his wings tucked into layers of shirts and coats from Brian's closet, like a crumpled receipt that he promises to pay for later.

* * *

Brian takes him to the beach where Jae can clearly see the sky meeting the earth.

"How's it like to fall from Heaven?" Brian suddenly asks while they're sitting on the sand side by side. He's looking at nothing in particular-- perhaps the clouds looming over the surface on the far side. Perhaps they're looking at the same nothingness of the entirety above them.

Jae blinks and tears his eyes away from the sky; stares at the man he's bumping shoulders with instead. _Falling was achingly slow and fast all at once. Terrifying yet thrilling. It's like feeling most alive all while in the hands of death-_ Jae has plenty of answers but settles with two words:

"It hurt."

Brian makes a noise of agreement, looks at Jae before speaking again.

"What if you'd fallen into the sea?"

"Then, I would have perished faster."

"Why did you..." This time his voice is warmer, gentler. This time he looks away, as if searching the sea for answers. "Why did you fall onto my garden of all places?"

The question is not addressed to him, Jae can tell; it's more of a question for the sky that he sets adrift in the air. But to this, Jae has an answer that he doesn't say aloud:

_Because perhaps Heaven knew that this would hurt more._

The drive back home is quiet. Jae watches the world in a blur from the window while Brian is driving and softly humming to songs that Jae has never heard before. Jae watches and, somewhere along the way, he witnesses a group of drunkards fighting on the street. At one point on a highway, there's a crash and an ambulance and a grieving family. Jae wills himself to close his eyes instead.

When they get home, Jae notices a cut on his foot. He thinks it must be from the sharp rocks he's walked by while picking up white pebbles on the beach and throwing them back right after _because that's where they belong_ , he's reminded himself.  
He checks up on the cut again. This time, he notices what's wrong—realizes that for the first time—it's not healing.  
_And this is where I don't belong,_ he thinks, looking at his feet rooted on the floor of Brian's room.  
He throws himself onto the bed with a loud sigh.

"Are you regretting it now?" Brian laughs from the opposite side of the room, tossing Jae a pair of pajamas that he's rummaged from the bottom of his closet. Brian laughs so easily and Jae wonders if he would be the same had he been human. He laughs so easily that it's so easy to join him and just smile and laugh without thinking of later, of tomorrow, of the dull stinging on his foot that shouldn't be there.

"Earth isn't all that fun like you thought," Brian adds, "and humans really suck."

Jae only hums. The silence is filled with the steady _tick tock tick tock_ of Brian's wall clock.

_tick_

_tock_

_tick_

_tock_

"But Heaven doesn't have you."

Jae sleeps that night with an ache in his chest.

* * *

The angel knows it's going to come soon. He knows his Fall is bound to be a temporary grant of his desires; a free taste of something sweet that he's going to crave and regret for eternity. Now his wishes are biting him back, slowly devouring the crumbling feathers on his skin.

* * *

"Sing me to sleep," Jae demands one night as soon as Brian stands up from his desk that's filled with stacks of notebooks and papers scribbled with scratched out lyrics.

Brian turns to look at the angel who's seated at the edge of his bed and wordlessly takes a guitar before sitting beside him.

_It was a really hard day today_  
_My heart aches for you_  
_The only thing I can do for you  
Is to be next to you, I’m sorry_

 _You’re so pretty when you smile_  
_So every time you lose that smile_  
_Even if I have to give my all_  
_I want to give it back to you_

 _I want to cry for you_  
_I want to hurt instead of you_  
_I don’t want any scars in your heart_  
_Ever again_

Jae keeps his eyes closed. Brian's voice never fails to make his heart feel warm. It's like being pulled into a tight embrace; a reassurance of a good morning despite the certainty of an end. Jae doesn't want this to end.

When the angel opens his eyes, he catches Brian staring at him. Jae notices how Brian's eyes seem to be heavy with sleep yet filled with life and hope and, and. Jae doesn't want to think further. Doesn't want to hope.

"Good night," Brian whispers, breaking the silence. Jae doesn't want to sleep yet.

"Brian?"

"Jae."

"There's one last thing I want to try."

 _Last_ , Brian repeats to himself. He knows it's near. He's seen everything; seen the feathers turn to ash, seen him bleed and not heal, seen the glow fade to nothing. He's always known, but he chose to keep it in the corners of his mind until this very moment.

Brian only nods; afraid he might choke on his words if he tries to speak. He nods, prompting Jae to go ahead and ask away, but the angel doesn't say a word.

Instead—instead Jae leans in, completely unsure how it's done, only certain that he wants no distance between them at the moment. He closes the distance slowly; touching Brian's cheek and tilting their faces, lightly pressing his lips against Brian's—flinching away when he doesn't know what to do next.

"Sorry—" he manages to mumble before receiving a breath of laughter on his face.

"This is how it's done."

For the record, Brian doesn't know how to do it, too. He's done it a couple of times before, sure, but they were always messy and urgent: a heartless craving, or more often, a soulless reciprocation of contact. All for the fun of it, as Brian always thinks, all for the thrill. But this time, for Jae—

For Jae he wants to make it different. For Jae he wants to do it right.

He cups the angel's cheeks, rubs his thumbs under his eyes when he feels a trickle of tears threatening to fall.

"Jae," he sighs, "is this okay?"

"Show me how it's done," Jae demands, tone beyond desperate than he intended. "This is my last favor, Brian."

And Brian does what he's asked.

* * *

When Brian wakes up, he's all alone. The room is cold but the space beside him feels much colder. There is, however, a touch of warmth on his lips that's begging to be remembered.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading ! comments and kudos are greatly appreciated <33


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